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Wednesday, 11 April 2018

They lie and lie about Viktor Orban

"What is happening in Hungary today can accordingly be interpreted by stating that the prevailing political leadership has today attempted to ensure that people’s personal work and interests, which must be acknowledged, are closely linked to the life of the community and the nation, and that this relationship is preserved and reinforced. In other words, the Hungarian nation is not simply a group of individuals but a community that must be organised, reinforced and in fact constructed. And so in this sense the new state that we are constructing in Hungary is an illiberal state, a non-liberal state. It does not reject the fundamental principles of liberalism such as freedom, and I could list a few more, but it does not make this ideology the central element of state organisation, but instead includes a different, special, national approach." Viktor Orbán’s Speech at the 25th Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp, Romania, July 30, 2014.

The words 'illiberal state', much quoted, look very different in context. He meant conservative and national as opposed to liberal. It is clear from the context that 'iIlliberal' was a mistranslation - it is defined as

I spoke with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, congratulated him on his election victory, and invited him to visit Israel. Thank you, Prime Minister Orban, for Hungary's support for Israel in international forums!

The Daily Telegraph in a wicked lie said that Mr. Orban ran a campaign of 'unabashed anti Semitism' presumably because he ran posters attacking Mr. Soros. Mr. Netanyahu, who hates Soros, congratulated Mr Orban on his victory and was taped saying in Budapest a while back that Hungary should not accept Muslim immigrants.

Back in September 2006 the socialist prime minister of Hungary was recorded saying his government lied to win the election of April of that year and "lied in the morning, lied in the evening" subsequently. It seems the Western press is lying about Viktor Orban or perhaps repeating lazily lies fed to them by the Hungarian post-Communist left.

Why do Hungarians vote for Orbán? Perhaps some of them, like me, are outraged by the venom directed at him. He has been vilified (chiefly by journalists who have spent a weekend in Budapest) as xenophobic, anti-Semitic and far-Right. He is none of these things. His government passed a Holocaust denial law, made Holocaust education compulsory and financed an Oscar-winning film about Auschwitz. His party has Roma MPs. It has offered student scholarships to Syrians and Iraqis.

Orbán’s election campaign has been characterised as anti-migrant. That’s misleading. His campaign was anti uncontrolled, illegal migration, and the EU dumping people who claim to be asylum seekers in Hungary. He believes a country should have some say in who enters its borders, a view, I suspect, many voters in Europe would agree with.

Why is his reputation so bad? The former Communists, until recently the main opposition, have suckered Western liberals, the Left and the EU’s Left-leaning management into believing that Orbán is evil personified. So skilfully that the Guardian ran a column suggesting that voters should support the neo-Nazis in Hungary to dislodge Orbán. You couldn’t make it up.

1 comment:

Why do Hungarians vote for Orban? Reading his March 15th speech may shed some light on the why. Quite a good understanding of liberalism and it's right and left options: https://gatesofvienna.net/2016/03/the-full-text-of-viktor-orbans-speech/

I don't hear any intelligent or honest mention of real history from any 'leaders' speeches, none since Reagan anyway. Orban is a first in a long time. He offers clear options. After 60 years of the liberalism it is not at all surprising that Hungarian choose the right one. A. M.